depths of the facred cave, to which a date much fhort of four thousand years can scarcely be affigned; let us penetrate its inmost recefs; and again contemplate the stupendous vifion.

ted, and has the

"The principal entrance is from the north. The enormous mafs of folid rock above is fupported by four rows of pillars of good proportion, but of an order in architecture totally different from that of Greece and Rome. Each column ftands upon a square pedestal, and is finely fluted; but, instead of being cylindrical, gradually bulges out towards the centre. The capital is alfo fluappearance of a cushion preffed flat by the weight of the fuperincumbent mountain. Over the tops of these columns there runs a ftone ridge cut out of the rock, resembling a beam, about a foot in thickness, richly adorned with carved work. Along the fides of the cavern are ranged thofe mighty coloffal ftatues before-mentioned, to the number of forty or fifty, each of them twelve or fifteen feet in height; and, although they are as round and prominent as the life, yet none of them are entirely detached from the main rock. Some of these figures

figures have on their heads a kind of helmet of a pyramidal form; others wear crowns rich in devices, and fplendidly decorated with jewels; while others difplay only large bushy ringlets of curled or flowing hair. Many of them have four hands, many have fix, and in thofe hands they grafp fceptres and shields, the fymbols of justice and the enfigns of religion, the weapons of war and the trophies of peace. Some of them have aspects that infpire the beholder with terror, and, in the words of Linfchoten, are diftorted into fuch "horrible and fearfull formes that they make a man's hayre ftand upright;" others are diftinguished by a placid ferenity and benignity of countenance; and others betray evident marks of deep dejection and inward anguish. The more confpicuous figures are all gorgeously arrayed after the Indian fashion, with heavy jewels in their ears, with fuperb collars of precious ftones, with belts sumptuously wrought, and with rich bracelets on their arms and wrifts."*

Paffing by the often-defcribed but with three heads, and the tremendous figure of the

Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 140.

Indian Kanodar above alluded to, let us proceed in queft of farther proof of the skill in fculpture of the old Indians to the west end of this grand pagoda, where is a dark SACELLUM, twenty feet fquare, totally deftitute of any external ornament, except the altar in the centre, and eight gigantic figures. which guard the four feveral doors that lead into it. These figures are ftationed one on each fide of every door, and are of the enormous height of thirteen feet and a half; they are all sculptured in high relief, and appear as, if ftarting from the wall to which they are attached. Their heads are decorated in a manner fimilar to the other ftatues: they have rich collars round their necks, and jewels of a vaft fize in their ears. Of the ftriking attitude of one of those ftatues, which remains moft entire, Mr. Hunter has recorded the following particulars: that the whole weight of the figure feems to rest upon the right leg, while the knee of the left is fomewhat bent, the right humerus hangs downward parallel to the body, and the fore-arm is bent in fuch a manner that the hand is oppofite to the navel, the palm is turned upwards and fuftains a GLOBE, and the fingers

are

are bent backwards in a style that admirably represents, or rather makes the spectator feel, the weight of the ponderous body they support. He adds a judicious remark, that the people, whoever they are, that carved thefe figures, muft have made confiderable progrefs in the art of ftatuary, fo accurately to have obferved, and fo fuccefsfully to have expreffed, as in many inftances they have, the alteration which the form of the limbs undergoes from muscular action and external impulfe, as well as the various effects of mental fenfation upon the human countenance.*

I have ventured to bring these paffages. again before the reader's view, for the purpose not only of proving the progress made by the Indians in SCULPTURE at this moft early period, which, as Mr. Hunter justly obferves, must have been very great; but of corroborating various affertions made. in the course of this Differtation concerning their equally rapid advance in other walks of fcientific attainment. Thus, for inftance, the Sword and the bell in the hands of the Indian Ahriman demonstrate that they were

* Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 259.

even then METALLURGISTS; the jewels and pearls, with which the ears, necks, arms, and ankles, of many of the figures are loaded, prove that they had already explored the fubterraneous regions for gems, and the bed of the ocean for its pearly treasures, and had accomplished the difficult process of piercing precious ftones; while the ZENNAR, or facred cord of three threads, on other figures, evinces that their cotton-manufactures were already commenced. These deduc tions must be allowed to be just, and are very important towards determining the antiquity of the arts and fciences in India ; but, at the fame time, it must be owned they carry us back very near to the period of the deluge, and confequently demonstrate,

truft, the propriety of my constantly connecting, both in the prefent work and in the History, the ante-diluvian arts and fciences, by the channel of Noah and his family, with thofe of the earliest post-diluvian ages. Without that hypothefis, at once fo rational and fo confonant to the Scripturehiftory, which expreffly mentions Tubal Cain as the first metallurgift, Cain as the first architect, Jubal as the first musician, &c. difficulties